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Monday, April 13th: After getting up at 8am, and going to get a car window replaced, we were ready to get on the road by 11am.
It took us about 9 hours to go from Reno to Huntington Beach. We took US 395 all the way south, and then went from there.
We arrived at the house of Kelly’s aunt and uncle, Ginny and Gary. They welcomed us and fed us leftover Easter dinner (which we missed thanks to the car theft that delayed us by a day and a half). We talked, and went to sleep to recover from the long trip… and be ready for the next day!

Tuesday: I hadn’t gotten much sleep. It was hot, humid and I guess I still had a bit of anxiety about the burglary. It also didn’t help that I woke up at around 8, ready to go… because we were going to Disneyland!
The lack of sleep didn’t get in the way though, because as soon as we set step upon the happiest place on earth, I was too excited to be tired.
Kelly had promised to buy me a Mickey hat and a churro as soon as we walked in the park, and that was exactly what happened.
It was my first time in Disneyland, and I was enjoying every minute of it. Everyone was so happy!
My first ride ever was Star Tours. It was a great start to the day, and my experience: old-school, classic, fun and silly.
From there, my memory gets blurry in a haze of laughs, rides, cartoon characters and feelings of happiness.
My favorite parts were the rides that involved movement, screaming and laughs: Screamin’ (in California Adventure), Big Thunder, Indiana Jones Adventure and Space Mountain (Kelly’s favorite ride!). I also really enjoyed Toon Town, because it really made me feel like I was in a cartoon, and it was just so goofy and happy!
Kelly and I also enjoyed observing all the park-goers, specially the little ones. Early in the day, most kids were litteraly bouncing up and down, running around as the excitement overwhelmed them. But later in the afternoon, the sight was quite different: temper tantrums, kids crying and our favorite: just passed out, so tired that they couldn’t even stay awake, and crashed on a bench somewhere.

Wednesday was a much more laid back day. We slept in for the first time since Sunday, which we deserved since we were on vacation after all.
The plans for the day were quite simple: go visit some relatives. And that’s how I ended up hanging out with Kelly and her grandpa for about 3 hours. Propitiously, he had a large stack of old pictures, and it was very enjoyable to see pictures of Kelly when she was a young one.
On the way back, we drove a little bit of the Pacific Coast Highway, from Orange County to Huntington Beach. The scenery was beautiful, and we both longed to go hang out at the beach, which we would soon do.
For dinner, we met up with Kelly’s cousin Gillian, her husband Dave and their 3 kids, at their house. We had pizza, some beer, and chatted for a good while. It was very laid back, relaxing and enjoyable.

On Thursday, we had major plans. In the morning, we traveled across LA, through some really shitty traffic, to arrive at the gorgeous Getty Center. We spent a few hours there. Kelly gave me a private history lesson about art and the Renaissance, and we enjoyed the sun and warm weather in the beautiful gardens.
While at the Getty, I couldn’t help but think of my parents, who would love the architecture of the place (my mom is an architect, my dad a civil engineer). It also was when I was hurt the most about not having my camera, because I really wanted to take some pretty pictures.

Afraid of what getting back on a freeway -at rush hour- would do for my mental sanity, we decided to take an alternative route to our next destination. Kelly’s excellent navigational skills determined that we could take Sunset Boulevard, so we did just that. It was another great drive!
We went from the Getty, through Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, seeing incredible houses mansions and fancy cars, and into Hollywood and LA, where the feeling was not quite the same, and we got to see a bit more of the “west side” feel.

Anyway, our final destination for the evening was the LA Dodger‘s stadium. It was time for another First Ever for me! I’d never been to a baseball game, and this was the perfect opportunity to cross that out of my list.
It was awesome! There were a lot of people, and we got some pretty good seats, so we were able to even see the ball as it got pitched and swung at.
In an attempt to get the real experience, we got hot-dogs and beer. I wasn’t quite ready for the wallet shock that this was going to be: three hot dogs at $5 each, and four beers at $10 each. An expense of $55 for something that was really worth less than $20. Oh well. Had to do it at least once.
The game was entertaining, and we got to learn about the Dodger’s fans and their passion for Manny. The other team was the S.F. Giants… and I could have probably pitched for them and gotten away with it, because they were horrible at it.
The Dodgers won, and that sealed my first official baseball experience as a very positive one.

After such a long day, Friday was time to finally go to Huntington Beach, aka SurfCity USA. The temperature wasn’t very hot, so we laid out on the sand to enjoy the sun, and watched some surfers do their thing.
Before we knew it, a couple of hours had gone by, and we were getting cooked. We decided to take a break, go have dinner with Kelly’s aunt and uncle, and to come back to watch the sunset.

So nice! A cool breeze blew as we sat on the sand and saw the sun slowly disappear. It was very romantic, and I hope we can do it again on beaches all over the world.

On Saturday, we did it all over again. Beach, sun, relax. I even got in the water and went for a very short swim, since the water temperature was of only 58 degrees.
The day ended with a big birthday party for Gary, with all of Kelly’s relatives that live in the area. It was fun to be in such a big family setting, with the kids being noisy playing, and everyone chatting it up. I think I did an ok impression on everyone, other than the couple of times when I called someone by someone else’s name. Oops.

Sunday was the sad day of traveling back to Reno, but it had to be done. We decided to just come up the same roads that took us down there.
We stopped in Mammoth to visit the Coach Outlet store, and found Kelly a replacement wallet for the one that had been stolen from her. We saved about 60% by shopping at the outlet! And by we, I mean me, because it was Kelly’s advance birthday present. Win-win, all the way.

The trip ended on a very high note when I got a phone call from someone that had found Kelly’s purse in their garbage can. The irreplaceable bag from Fiji was safe, and saved! The rest of the items were not there, but the most important one was the bag, and that made us happy to be back home.

It was a very long one week, and an excellent vacation. Kelly was an excellent tour guide, and it was a great road trip from beginning to end. We drove a little bit over 1300 miles total, and we were apart only when the other one was using the bathroom. Oh yeah!

Even though I didn’t have my camera, we had Kelly’s. We took a few pictures, and you can see all of them on my flickr page. I leave you with a link to that: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicoyogui/sets/72157616981363233/

Last weekend was ScalleyCat. A bike “race” that’s more like a scavenger hunt of random things in Reno.

It works like this. First, you find a partner who likes to ride bikes as much as you do. Lucky me, that one is Kelly!
Second, you show up to the event. It started at noon on Saturday. Your team gets a “bible”, a booklet with all the objectives of things you have to find. They range from innocuous acts like getting a picture by a landmark  -such as a statue- or riding long distances around town… and then there are things that border the lines of law or ethics, such as nudity or trespassing.
Since you have to prove that you did fulfill the task, and there are too many to have witnesses, you have to take a picture of you in the act of everything.
Finally, you have 24 hours to get as many things as you can from that list. Some are worth a lot of points, some are worth just a few. You and your teammate can do as many as you want, and in whichever order you prefer to. It’s strategy!

However, there’s more! Before the main event, there were smaller ones, which built up momentum and excitement.
On Wednesday, the opening night, I took part of the Time Trials competition. We started at the Lincoln Lounge, and raced all the way to Chapel Tavern, and back!
A short course, and at 8pm there wasn’t a lot of traffic… I was lucky and got mostly green lights the whole way, and I was able to complete the 3+ mile course in about 12 minutes. But that was too slow, because the top 3 teams (which included a couple of the awesome Bootleg Couriers) finished in about 9 minutes.

Thursday had an event taking place at the Hideout. The band “White Mice” was playing… and if you clicked on that link, you’ll know that they’re not exactly my cup of tea. That, and the room being the size of my office, combined for my ears imploding and making us not last very long at this shindig.
I will also take the opportunity to mention that although this is a dive bar that allows smoking, the smoke was not offensive. The body odor of the party goers was. I had to wash my nostrils with drano.

Anyway. Friday had us back at the Lincoln Lounge, where all we did was chill out and drink. There was a bluegrass band playing, which was a much better background music, but I was too busy having a good time with Kelly, Cory and Mikey.

Saturday came. We got our Bible. We got on our bikes… and we went! We tried to stick to our plan, which was do as much as possible without getting sent to jail. And we did! We had great time, and ended up gathering a bit above 75000 points, after riding somewhere around 45 miles in total, after 24 hours.
The pictures that we took show exactly which challenges we did, so to get to see what Team Skanksquatch went through, you should click here. Beware, some of the pictures include me with few clothes, or no clothes at all!

All in all, it was a great weekend. That’s what happens when you combine hanging out with your dream girl, riding bicycles, drinking Joose and doin’ hoodrat stuff. I’d definitely do it again. But hopefully I’ll have a nicer bike by then, and we’ll be able to go further, longer and crazier!

Oh, you can also see other team’s pictures over here. This is cool, because not everyone did the same challenges, and there are pictures of random people sleeping with bums, getting tattoos, doing karaoke at the Cal-Neva and making out with total strangers.

Things are happenin’!

Earlier today, I called the USCIS (ex INS) to check up on the status of my Visa. I wanted to make sure that after my upcoming trip to Argentina with Kelly, I could re-enter without much trouble.
Turns out the answer was a big fat no.

And that I have to leave the United States within 30 days.

Unless…

This is where the “welp” part kicks in. You see, Kelly and I have been going pretty solid for the last 4 months. We’ve talked about raising a family, having a white picket fenced house, going on a Cruise in the Mediterranean and all that jazz…
And given the circumstances, we’re going to elope.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. It’s happening a little sooner than planned and/or expected, but it was going to happen sooner or later… and sooner it is!
Kelly is the woman of my dreams, and makes me feel like no one ever has. She’s been incredibly understanding about these shenanigans, and as soon as I kneeled to ask for her hand, I already knew she was going to say yes. I have no doubts that we’ll make it, and this might just be a blessing in disguise!

We’re looking for a place to make it all happen, soon. Probably nothing big, just friends and close family. It has to happen probably in less than 2 weeks, so that afterwards I still have time to clear all the paperwork and go through all the red tape.

You want to give the newlyweds a present? Just head on over to PayPal and help out with a few dollars!

Last weekend, Kelly showed me some of her yearbooks from her youth. We found the one for her senior year, at McQueen High School. The year that I was there too, as an exchange student.
As we opened it, the first thing we saw was my writing. On the top of the back of the cover. Basically, the “first” place where one could ever possibly write. And here’s what I wrote:

Kelly!!! I love you woman! You are one of the first sexy women who talked to me! I feel sooo special :) Have fun in college, don’t get naked and drunk at the same time (or you’ll get pregnant), but still have fun forever. You’ll hear more from me!!! (he he)

Whoa! As we finished reading it out loud, we looked at each other and laughed out loud. The words “you’ll hear more from me” echoing, and changing meanings as our history replayed in a flash: It all started with occasionally chatting on the internet, to seeing each other here and there… several months of no contact, and then starting again with chatting online more and more. From there, things translated into the real world, and we started hanging out more and more, falling in love slowly to recently end up becoming quite inseparable.

He he, indeed, Kelly. And I still think she’ll hear more from me.

Well, hello there. It’s been a while since I posted. Since last year, in fact. So, let me catch you up to speed.

I’m in love. Let me tell you who I’m in love with.

Kelly  has been part of my life since 1999. It’s really quite the story. We first talked on AOL when I was an exchange student. You know, the typical A/S/L kind of conversation.
I remember the first day we met face to face. I was playing soccer with the school team. She had just finished her cheerleading practice, and she came over to say hi, in her uniform and all. We awkwardly shook hands, and she walked away, giggling. Seems like so long ago!

However, between then and 2006, our interaction was little and infrequent (me living in Argentina between 2000 and 2003 certainly didn’t help). We’d run into each other here and there, but never “hang out”. Her circle of friends and life intersected mine in the smallest of ways.

In the beginning of 2007,  when my (ex)wife kicked me out of the house, I forced myself to re-establish relationships and friendships. Kelly was one of them.
I sent her a message over Mypace, asking her if she’d like to meet up and catch up. I honestly wasn’t looking for a hot date, I was just trying to reach out and make some friends. We met at Bully’s, had a burger and talked for a few hours. We caught up. We said goodbye. Nothing more.
After that, things get blurry. We chatted online frequently, several times a week. We joined Twitter at about the same time. We rode our bicycles in the Reno Critical Mass meetups…
Since she would often talk about how much it sucked being single, I tried to hook her up with every one of my single friends. She gave them all a shot, but nothing ever came out of any of the encounters.
As time passed, we became good friends. Even though we’d rarely get to chat in person, we’d talk over the intertubez quite often, about all sorts of different things… from superficial silly things like the weather and sharing links to YouTube videos, to deeper and more private things that involved feelings, thoughts and all that stuff that makes you feel like you know someone better, and that they’re letting you in on something that only a few know.

Fast forward to the end of November of 2008, and I was single again. After putting 1 and 1 together, I asked her out on a date. She said yes right away, which I took as a good sign.
The day came. A nice dinner, a few glasses of fine wine, and 5 hours later, I dropped her off at her house, and that was the beginning of the transition…  going from good friends, to falling head over heels in love. This moment was marked with a most intense and welcome good night kiss.

Within a few weeks, we made it “official” and changed out status on Facebook to “in a relationship”. We did it together, in the living room of her house. It was quite the romantic moment. Gotta love technology!

She invited me to her family’s house to have Christmas dinner, which I took as another very good sign. If I was good enough to be introduced to the parents -on Christmas day, none the less-, I wasn’t just a passing thing.
My Christmas present from her was a framed picture of her school portrait. To most people, this might be the lamest thing you could come up with, but I found it to be an excellent gift. The gesture told me “I want you to think of me, I want you to remember me”. And I do just that, as I get to see her smiling face on the corner of my work desk, every day from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 5pm.

 Less than a month after our first date, I realized I was madly in love. Luckily, I found out the feeling was mutual. Despite such a short time of actually dating, we talked about how it felt as if we’d been together for much longer. I guess being good friends before moving forward has worked pretty well for us.

Kelly is a teacher, a traveler, a peace lover, a dreamer. She’s just awesome, and there are no words in any language to fairly describe the things about her that lead me to being so twitterpated. Just take my word for it.

A few weeks ago, she went back and read through my blog, from the beginning in 2005 to today. In case you didn’t know, there’s a lot of history here! I posted while I was married, I posted while I was going through a divorce, while I dated other people and anywhere in between. And Kelly didn’t take it negatively. She’s not jealous of my past. She sees it the way I see it: Such was the bumpy path that took me to where I am now. These were the experiences that shaped me into who and what I am. There is no shame in admitting one’s mistakes, or finding out about someone else’s path.
Likewise, I am not jealous of her past, or online writings. Her blog has a lot of history, stories of being happy with someone else, and then broken hearted. Stories of being loved, and of lonely.
I enjoy reading her blog posts, always have. Her few latest posts made me feel like I needed to start explaining what’s going on with me and her, before it’s too late and I have a long story to explain (several paragraphs later, I feel like it’s indeed to late, and this is becoming a novel).

There are so many good things about Kelly, that this post would never end if I were to list what they are. So, instead, I’ll take a more pragmatic approach. If I explain what I don’t like, and make a list, then you can safely assume that anything that is not listed, I like. Simple logic, it would seem.
So here it goes: 

There’s only one thing I don’t like about Kelly. What is that thing, you ask? I’ll show you a picture, and explain: 

The first time I had to make some toilet bowl stew at Kelly’s house, I found myself looking at the toilet paper. My first reaction was to take it out, and place it the way I like it – with the paper rolling out from the top.
But then, I thought to myself “this is it!” This was the first thing that I didn’t like about Kelly. And I smiled to myself, with my pants around my ankles, and gave in to her bizarre ways of buttock hygiene.

She will probably find out about this shortly after I hit the “publish” button, and tell me that I’m a huge dork. And then give me a kiss. And tell me that she loves me. Because that’s what she does. And guess what I’ll do?

That’s right. I’ll tell her that I love her too, as I return the kiss.